In the Name of Bolivia: Protest and Repression in the TIPNIS

• In Event: Protest and Regimes

Abstract

When Evo Morales was sworn in as the president of Bolivia in January 2006 he promised to lead a plurinational state that would respect the claims of indigenous populations and respond to the voices of a mobilized civil society. Almost immediately tensions between these commitments and the legacy of development rooted in resource extraction surfaced, with the Morales administration questioning the legitimacy of social movements asserting indigenous territorial claims. Social mobilization in the TIPNIS area of Bolivia offers a perfect lens through which to begin to explore these tensions. In August 2011 large-scale protests voicing opposition to the development of a road through indigenous territory in the TIPNIS were met with a violent police raid and declarations by state officials that the protesters were “enemies of Bolivia.” Why were these protests—mounted by core Morales constituents and in line with commitments at the heart of the Morales agenda—framed as illegitimate by the state? How did appeals to nationalism (Bolivian and otherwise) surface through and shape the protesters’ claims? The paper argues that the conflict between the Morales administration and the TIPNIS protesters reveals incommensurable conceptions of plurinationalism, development, and progress.

Author

• Erica S. Simmons, University of Wisconsin, Madison